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NEW BRUNSWICK — In a dramatic day of testimony in the landmark spying case, M.B., the prosecution’s unnamed star witness, said that while having sex with Tyler Clementi in a Rutgers University dormitory during one of their three meetings, he noticed a webcam peering at Clementi’s bed.

But he didn’t think anything of it.

“I just noticed it because I happened to glance over,” M.B. said during his direct examination in the morning. “There was a camera lens glancing directly at me.”

Later, under cross-examination, M.B. said he didn’t mention the camera to Clementi and only remembered what he had seen later, when it became relevant.

“There was no thoughts that somebody might be watching me,” he said. “If I saw a light on, maybe I would have brought it up. There was no lights on (the camera).”

Today marked the first time M.B., who has been identified only by his initials because he does not want his identity known, has spoken publicly. Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman has ordered that M.B. is not to be photographed and his testimony cannnot be recorded. He is considered a victim.

Clementi’s college roommate, Dharun Ravi, is on trial in Middlesex County and faces charges of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and hindering apprehension in a controversial case that has captured the world’s attention.

Prosecutors allege Ravi intentionally set up the webcam to spy on and humiliate his gay roommate, but Ravi’s lawyer, Steve Altman, contends Ravi is not prejudiced and checked on the two men via webcam only because he was worried about his valuable possessions in the room with a stranger.

According to testimony, Clementi and M.B. met in Clementi’s dorm room on Sept. 16, 19 and 21, 2010.

Even though he didn’t believe the camera was on, M.B. testified about feeling uneasy in the dormitory after that visit of Sept. 19, 2010, and a subsequent visit, on Sept. 21, indicating he might have been wondering if he and Clementi were victims of an inside joke.

After his sexual encounter with Clementi on Sept. 19, M.B. said he exited Clementi’s room to find a group of students loitering and gawking in the hallway.

"They were looking at me," he said. "It seemed kind of unsettling."

And, as the two men lay in Clementi’s bed two days after that, M.B. said he “could hear people talking in the courtyard -- people joking, people laughing. It seemed like the jokes were at somebody else’s expense."

According to today’s testimony – Day 6 in a trial expected to last three to four weeks -- Clementi and M.B. met in Clementi’s Davidson Hall dorm room on Sept. 16, 19 and 21. Clementi and M.B. were seen kissing in Clementi’s room on Sept. 19, when Ravi turned on his webcam from a friend’s laptop.

Clementi committed suicide on Sept. 22, 2010, by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after the alleged spying was uncovered, sparking worldwide dialogue on cyber-bullying and harassment of gay teenagers. Ravi is not charged in connection with Clementi’s death.

With the emergence of the unnamed witness, this was the most anticipated day of the trial so far. In an interview with reporters outside the courtroom during a lunch break, M.B.’s attorney, Richard Pompelio, called him a "fine young man who came here to tell the truth under very difficult circumstances."

Pompelio also defended the court’s decision to protect his client’s identity, after Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman ordered that M.B. is not to be photographed and his testimony cannot be recorded. M.B. is considered a victim in the case.

“Can you imagine if he doesn’t remain anonymous?” Pompelio said. “There will be a lot of people knocking on his door, continuing to invade his privacy."

Through testimony and comments by Pompelio, some details about M.B. have emerged: He is unmarried and 32 years old, having met Clementi at age 30. And while Pompelio said his client is “not scruffy and he’s not old," M.B. testified that on Sept. 19, he was not clean-shaven and came directly from work. The judge has banned the defense from asking about M.B.’s job.

Clean-shaven and wearing a blue button-up shirt and black pants, M.B. appeared apprehensive at 9 a.m., when he first entered the courtroom, which was packed with media.

John Munson/The Star-LedgerDharun Ravi, who is on trial for invasion of the privacy of his roommate Tyler Clementi in September 2010, smiles with his father Ravi Pazhani on their way to lunch break.

Throughout direct examination by First Assistant Prosecutor Julia McClure, M.B. walked the court through his relationship with Clementi, detailing how they met and publicly revealing their Sept. 16 meeting for the first time. He also described their three dates in Clementi’s dorm room and the behavior of those around them.

According to testimony, M.B. and Clementi met on adam4adam.com, a social web site, at the end of August 2010. They met in person for the first time on Sept. 16, and became intimate that day, M.B. said. The first encounter followed about four hours of instant messaging, M.B. said. He drove 20 to 35 minutes from his home to the Rutgers Busch campus, arriving around midnight, he said.

Under cross-examination, M.B. said that on Sept. 16, after their first sexual encounter, he left Clementi’s room well before 2 a.m., because he knew Ravi was coming back at that time.

"I just didn’t want his roommate to have trouble with two gay men in the room that he shares,” M.B. said. “He might be uncomfortable. He might not be uncomfortable. Just basic co-existence. I had no preconceptions there would be a problem. I was just trying to be respectful of his roommate."

Ravi’s father shook his head at the word “uncomfortable." On Thursday, the former captain of a Rutgers Ultimate Frisbee team said Ravi had discussed Clementi possibly being gay and said Ravi "appeared uncomfortable with the situation."

Altman asked M.B. if he and Clementi had spoken about meeting somewhere other than the dorm.

"To get to be intimate, we had talked about going to hotels," M.B. said, but Clementi had already spoken to his roommate about him coming over, he added.

When Altman asked M.B. if he closed the blinds during their encounters, M.B. said he couldn’t recall if the blinds were open or closed, but he assumed they were closed, along with the windows.

“We were there to be intimate with each other, so I’m sure the windows weren’t open." He added, "Our intentions were to get intimate and we wanted privacy."

They texted each other, M.B., said on the witness stand, in the hours preceeding the Sept. 19 encounter. In one text at 7:20 p.m., M.B. responded to a message Clementi sent for a planned meeting later that night.

“Well then I’m there, I need to see you,” M.B. said, reading from a text message.

Frances Micklow/The Star-LedgerMedia lines the hall as people begin to exit the courtroom.

M.B. said he drove to Clementi’s Davidson Hall dorm room on Sept. 19, three days after his initial visit to the room, and Ravi was there.

“It was just a quick hi,” he said of Ravi’s reaction. “I wasn’t engaging in any conversation. I wasn’t really studying his looks.”

Altman questioned M.B. about those initial minutes in Clementi’s room on Sept. 19.

“Did you avoid looking at [Ravi]?” Altman asked.

“I didn’t mind looking at him. I said hello to him. I gave him enough respect that a stranger gives another stranger," M.B. said.

M.B. repeated what he said earlier in the day on direct examination, that Ravi was laying in his bed when M.B. entered. M.B. said he didn’t expect Ravi would be there. Ravi left the room, M.B. said, then returned, “walked to his desk, shuffled around a bit, then walked out,” he said.

“I had just assumed he forgot something,” M.B. said.

He acknowledged that he and Clementi “started to get intimate together within those two seconds of Dharun leaving the room and entering the room.”

Ravi was about to take a shower, and was holding a towel and shower caddy, Altman said, though M.B. said he couldn't remember.

In testimony earlier this week, fellow Rutgers student Molly Wei, whose dorm room was just a few feet away, testified that Ravi accessed his remote webcam using her laptop computer that night, and that they both glimpsed Clementi and M.B. kissing for a few seconds.

M.B. said that after he and Clementi had sex on Sept. 19 – the day of the alleged spying -- he encountered a group of about five students when he left the room. Under cross-examination, Altman asked if M.B. felt uncomfortable because he was older than everyone else.

"I felt uncomfortable because they were staring at me and they were looking at me in an odd way," M.B. said, his voice getting louder.

When M.B. said he left Clementi’s dorm room on the night of Sept. 19, he said he wanted to see Clementi as soon as he could, but “there was no solid plan.” He added, “I left happy, he was happy. We wanted to see each other again.”

John Munson/The Star-LedgerFamily members of Tyler Clementi listen to the testimony of Clementi's visitor M.B. today.

He and Clementi saw each other again in the dorm room on Sept. 21, he said. M.B. said he intended to see Clementi again but was "uneasy" about returning to the dorm.

"I texted him every single day," he said. "I did intend to see him. ... Was I was going to return to that building? I felt a little uneasy about it."

Under questioning about their Sept. 21 encounter, M.B. said when he entered Clementi’s room, “I didn’t see the web cam on top of the computer,” referring to the camera attached to the top of Ravi’s desktop computer. He didn’t question Clementi about it, after noticing the webcam two days earlier, which appeared to be pointed at Clementi’s bed.

Altman questioned M.B.’s appearance at the time of the meetings, trying to strengthen the defense’s contention that Ravi watched the two men only because he was worried about his belongings. Several Rutgers students have testified that when they saw M.B. in the dormitory, he was “shady” and “shabby.” M.B. said he couldn’t remember what he wore.

Altman also peppered M.B. with questions on whether the two had discussed meeting anywhere besides the dorm for privacy. M.B. said they had discussed getting a hotel room, and he had told Clementi that his home could be used on weekends.

On a Saturday, M.B. said he messaged Clementi to “just hang out in my car,” but then decided to “wait until we could have the privacy of his room.”

M.B. said he texted Clementi and expected to see him again after the Sept. 21 encounter, but never did.

But, he added, "I did not plan on seeing him at the dorm again."

M.B. never saw Clementi again. “I didn’t know his last name until I saw it in the newspaper,” he said, referring to the news that Clementi had killed himself.

During M.B.’s testimony, the Clementi family gave little reaction, but Clementi’s father, Joseph Clementi, rocked back and forth in the front row of the courtroom. The Clementi family sat behind the prosecution table.

Tyler Clementi’s older brother, James, left the courtroom after Altman handed M.B. several pages of instant messages he exchanged with Tyler in their initial communication on the social networking site adam4adam.

Pompelio said Clementi’s death – which M.B. learned about from the radio -- hurts his client “terribly." M.B. testified that even though he and Clementi knew each other only a short time, they wanted to continue to see each other because “we had a good relationship.”